Moroccan parliamentarians on American tour to shed light on Sahara issue

A Moroccan parliamentary delegation of the Socialist Alliance group is currently on a tour in north and south America to throw light on the Sahara issue, and inform officials in the region about its latest developments.

Morocco's southern provinces (known as the Sahara) are an object of dispute between Morocco and the Algeria-backed Polisario front that claims the separation of this territory. The former Spanish colony was retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under Madrid Accords signed with Spain and Mauritania.

Mohamed Ahajjam, who is leading the parliamentary delegation, said US and Latin-American officials that met with the delegation, expressed support to Morocco's territorial integrity and to a "negotiated political solution within the framework of the United Nations."

He added that officials at the Organization of American States (OAS), including the ambassadors of Venezuela and Mexico, promised they will deeply examine this issue after they saw the importance Morocco grants to this question and to the liberation of Moroccans sequestered by the Polisario in Tindouf (southwest of Algeria).

According to Ahajjam, the President of the Institute for religions and public policy proposed that former officials of the Polisario front, who returned to Morocco, go to the United States to explain the reality of the Sahara issue to American officials and members of the congress.

The Institute will hold an inter-parliamentary conference in Marrakech at the end of 2005 with the participation of 120 delegations.

The delegation, which already visited Venezuela, Colombia and the Ecuador, went Friday to Salvador. The last leg of its tour (March 12-31) will be Mexico.